"By living your life in a way that exemplifies your beliefs, your actions display what you believe. This means getting involved in your community, volunteering for charity activities, and networking. What does it say to you when someone constantly talks about their amazing gardening skills, but you never see their tomatoes or roses? Is your mind questioning those supposed skills? The same thing goes for libertarian ideals. You can talk ALL DAY LONG about the wonders of free markets, voluntary cooperation, and how private charity outperforms government welfare programs in every way, but if no one sees you “gardening,” how much weight do your words carry?"

"Unfortunately, the longer the Fed waits to exit, the more painful the exit will be. But trading long-term pain for short-term gain is the Fed's specialty. In the meantime, Wall Street watches in uncomprehending stupor as the economy settles deeper and deeper into the stimulus trap". Read More...

"Libertarianism and free market economics (including Austrian) are on the rise; the numbers of intellectuals, students, etc. who are interested in these ideas today completely dwarfs numbers from even the 1980s, and even more so those of earlier generations."

"Libertarians can disagree in good faith about what the relationship should be between marriage and the state. In the first-best world, many of us agree that marriage should be freed from the state. I certainly do. And in the second-best world we can and do disagree about whether the state should treat same-sex couples equally when it comes to marriage." Read More...

The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle – Richard Ebeling (2009) - New edition with an introduction by Roger Garrison and an index. Booms and busts are not endemic to the free market, argues the Austrian theory of the business cycle, but come about through manipulation of money and credit by central banks.(Read More)

Meme of the Week

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""If we each work on the piece of the puzzle that appeals to us most, the final picture will reflect the composite of our dreams."

- Mary J. Ruwart

Liberty Library: The Gold Standard

What is the gold standard? What would be the economic consequences of returning to a gold standard? Answers to these questions and more can be found in Freedom Unfiltered's Liberty Library. The Liberty Library contains links to our favorite resources on a host of topics related to individual liberty and sound economics. The featured website of the week, "The Gold Standard Now", is also a superb resource for learning about all things related to the gold standard.

Indeed, in its unwillingness to confront directly near-term and long-term issues with the size and scope of government, the GOP budget is simply one more example of how similar both major parties really are.Read More...

Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency's budget were cut, what would it do?

The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.. Read More...

Reformers should really begin by going through the entire body of federal criminal law -- starting with all statutes that carry jail time -- operating under the presumption that every statute should be eliminated unless it can be justified as essential. The federal government, especially, has no business duplicating state functions or applying criminal penalties to advance mere social engineering objectives.Read More...

In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed 253 journal articles, 99 books and 43 government publications evaluating 80 gun-control measures. Researchers could not identify a single regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents. Read More...

"A new video on income inequality has gone viral. In this video, the authors want us to believe that wealth inequality is far away from our national “ideal” distribution.The following is my response to the video and the study on which it was based."Read More...

The Gold Standard Now: "We support a 21st century international gold standard. America should lead by unilateral resumption of the gold standard. Unilateral resumption means that the U.S. dollar should be defined in federal statute as a certain weight unit of gold. The Treasury will be responsible for maintaining this guaranteed value of the U.S. dollar."

"The gold standard was, and could be again, the stable American and international monetary institution – encouraging financial order, growth, and prosperity.The abandonment of the gold standard during the history of the 20th century resulted in manipulated currencies leading to a century of economic and civil strife, within nations, and to terrible wars between the great powers. The 20th century experience of monetary disorder, wrought by floating exchange rates and Central Bank discretion, is the empirical witness to the indispensable necessity of convertibility of the major national currencies to gold – a restoration only plausible under American leadership." Learn more at TheGoldStandardNow.org.

This Week's Reading Recommendation

Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan (2004) - The second edition of the fun and fascinating guide to the main ideas of the Austrian School of economics, written in sparkling prose especially for the non-economist. Gene Callahan shows that good economics isn't about government planning or statistical models. It's about human beings and the choices they make in the real world..(Read More)

Meme of the Week

Send us your favorite memes and pictures to be included on our Website and Facebook page. This week's pic comes from KAZ Vorpal:

"I could not watch this brilliant film without thinking of all the ways in which the state and its agents today do the same thing as Javert — thanks to a completely unthinking devotion to the idea that whatever the law says is right." Read More...

This interactive feature provides economic growth data for the largest 300 metropolitan economies worldwide for three periods: 2011 to 2012. The East is growing while the West is shrinking... Read More...

A very intriguing new site, Tocqueville Miles & Points puts the “Free in Freedom” – sharing with the internet community how to enjoy one of the natural freedoms, the freedom of travel, for free using points and promotions.Read More...

The Independent Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan, scholarly research and educational organization that sponsors in-depth studies of critical social and economic issues. The mission of the Independent Institute is to boldly advance peaceful, prosperous, and free societies grounded in a commitment to human worth and dignity.

Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt (1946) - Hazlitt's lesson is simple: “The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.“ He then applies the lesson to 23 key issues to expose the fallicies of poor economic reasonin. Regardless less of one's understanding of economics, everyone will be able to appreciate and enjoy this book.(Read More)

Meme of the Week

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"I believe that our situation is not hopeless, but that our hope lies not in the political process, but in convincing the people that the political process is the problem."

- Mark Thronton

What's the Deal with Sequestration?

by Jason Riddle

On March 1, about $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect. For the last several weeks, members of the federal government and the media have touted the sequestration cuts as yet another looming fiscal crisis of doomsday proportions. Entire government departments will be brought to their knees. Layoffs will rip through the public sector. The members of Congress and their families will starve. Or, so we are told....

If no legislative action is taken, the sequester will make across the board budget cuts (some exceptions exist, such as Social Security and pay for enlisted military personnel) of $85 billion during the last seven months of this fiscal year. Read More...

"Rothbard argued these were “time-honored favorites of government policy” and the last part of AGD was devoted to showing how these were the policies adopted in 1929–1933. Current policy has followed the same path."Read More...

The mission of The Future of Freedom Foundation is to advance freedom by providing an uncompromising moral and economic case for individual liberty, free markets, private property, and limited government.

Defending the Undefendable – Walter Block (2008) - It is among the most famous of the great defenses of victimless crimes and controversial economic practices, from profiteering and gouging to bribery and blackmail. However, beneath the surface, this book is also an outstanding work of microeconomic theory that explains the workings of economic forces in everyday events and affairs. (Read More)

Meme of the Week

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"What is love? In love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, their virtues which they have achieved in their own character. You don’t love causelessly."

- Ayn Rand

Sailing by the Ash Breeze

by Jason Riddle

Although we do not have a choice about the wind’s direction, we can control how we react. Instead of worrying about the things you can’t control, try focusing on the things you can. And, if you ever find yourself in becalmed waters, may you find the strength to sail by the ash breeze until the wind fills your sails again....

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.

This Week's Reading Recommendation

Lessons for the Young Economist - Robert Murphy (2010) We are beyond mere excitement about Lessons for the Young Economist. It is easily the best introduction to economics for the young reader because it covers both pure economic theory and also how markets work (the domain of most introductory books). It achieves a great balance between plain old economics and that aspect of economic thought that is considered particularly Austrian. Therefore, it prepares the student for both conventional economic studies in the future and provides the logical rigor and policy clarity that only the Austrian School perspective can offer. (Read More)

Meme of the Week

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“When taxes are too high, people go hungry. When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit."

- Lau-tzu, Tao Te Ching

What's new on Freedom Unfiltered

Have you had a chance to explore the Liberty Library? Over the last several months we have built out the Liberty Library with hundreds of hand-selected articles and videos on the topics of individual liberty and sound economics. Please take a few minutes to visit the new Liberty Library and share this resource with your friends.

"Liberty is indivisible. Economic freedom is as important as personal or political freedom, because the personal, the political, and the economic are strands of the same braid: liberty. Thus, the only way to achieve and protect a free society is to defend liberty in all its forms." Read More...

For years now, we have endured a barrage of bad news: businesses going belly-up, people losing their jobs and homes, government debt soaring. It didn’t have to be this way. The Austrian School presents the most coherent explication of the economic relations among men and—more so than any other system today—lays out economic guidelines that offer real prospects for prosperity worldwideRead More...

Liberty Out Loud Podcast

On 12/12, Jason was interviewed on the Gadsen Rising radio program by Libby Gadsen & Mary Lou Van Houten about the Federal Reserve, government, markets, and the history of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Liberty Academy offers learning paths to help you navigate the ideas of liberty through specific disciplines. Each learning path contains about 10 lessons in a suggested order. Each lesson has four parts: a video, suggested resources, questions, and a discussion area.

What Has Government Done to Our Money? - Murray Rothbard (1962) - It details the history of money, from early barter systems, to the gold standard, to present-day systems of paper money. Rothbard explains how money was originally developed, and why gold was chosen as the preferred commodity to use as money.

Meme of the Week

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On the morning of December 7th, 1941, the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese fighter planes. The losses were severe. Over 2,500 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded. Eighteen American ships and nearly three hundred airplanes were destroyed or severely damaged. This devastating attack on America’s Pacific fleet is typically cited as the catalyst driving the United States into World War II. Lesser known is that the “date which will live in infamy” was the culmination of intentional and deliberate actions by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The attack was neither unexpected nor unprovoked.

"As the year draws to an end, America faces yet another Congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth touted as “saving” the economy…..Look for a “bipartisan” compromise in late December, with Republicans giving in to tax increases and settling for phony spending cuts that actually grow government, and Democrats caving on defense cuts in exchange for tax increases. This is how the government has always grown: both sides will sacrifice their pro-liberty, small government stances in certain areas in order to grow the government where they prefer. Liberty always loses in the 11th hour." Read More...

“Public austerity is a necessary condition for private flourishing and a rapid recovery. The problem of Europe (and the United States) is not too much but too little austerity — or its complete absence.”Read More...

"The real crisis is the ticking time bomb of entitlement programs and the welfare state.... So long as government spending grows faster than the private sector, it's just a matter of time before international investors pull the plug and stop buying our debt."Read More...

The debt ceiling has been raised, with varying degrees of fanfare, every time it has been hit. This renders the law completely meaningless. Now of course, under the pretense of fiscal responsibility, the President wants to do the most fiscally irresponsible thing imaginable – eliminate the ceiling entirely.Read More...

The History of the Dollar: The history of the US dollar is the subject of the greatest counterfeiting scheme the world has known. (12 mins)

The Gold Standard Explained: Jason discusses the "ins and outs" of the gold standard talks about the prospects for sound money. (25 mins)

Freedom Features

Video of the Week

Debt Ceiling & the Fiscal Cliff President Obama wants to make it easier for our nation to go deeper into debt supposedly to convince bondholders that we are serious about paying our bills. Of course, we can only "pay"our bills if bondholders loan us the money to necessary to make the payments . In other words, we "pay" them back using their own money, going even deeper into debt in the process. How much longer can this Ponzi scheme continue now that we have alerted the victims to the nature of the scam? (Click to Watch)

Website of the Week

Marginal Revolution University (MRUniversity) is a new approach to online education led by professors Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution. The first course offered is Development Economics. Find out why why MRUniversity is different.

In "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" Richard Maybury uses historical events from Ancient Rome to explain economic principles. This clearly written book about economics is a remarkably easy and fun explanation of investment cycles, velocity, business cycles, recessions, inflation, the demand for money and more. Essential for every student, businessperson and investor. (Read More)

Meme of the Week

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"You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth – and that future wealth is less likely to be produced when people see that it is going to be confiscated."

Much has been made about the pending ‘fiscal cliff’ facing the US economy. Automatic spending cuts and tax hikes will go into effect on the first of the new year if our wise leaders in Washington don’t come together and save us (from the problem they themselves created). Here are ten quick thoughts I have about the whole fiscal cliff fiasco:

#1Indivisible Liberty: Personal, Political, and Economic by Doug Bandow (FEE.org) "Liberty is indivisible. Economic freedom is as important as personal or political freedom, because the personal, the political, and the economic are strands of the same braid: liberty. Thus, the only way to achieve and protect a free society is to defend liberty in all its forms." Read More...

#2 We Already Went Over the Fiscal Cliff by Robert Murphy (Free Advice) "The hemming and hawing over the looming “fiscal cliff” is akin to passengers fighting over who gets to sit in the first class seats in a jumbo jet that just ran out of fuel. The U.S. government already sent the country over the cliff years ago; it’s just taken this long to (possibly) acknowledge reality." Read More...

#3 Now UN Promotes Global Education (The Daily Bell) "The United Nations is promoting educational goals. Ten years ago, the "international community" authorized the UN to achieve something called Education for All by 2015." Read More...

#4 Action, Time, and the Market by Jeffrey M. Herbener (Mises.org) "The wellspring of all economic theory is the reality of the human condition. As a finite being, man makes a distinction between ends and means. He cannot attain his ends by an act of will alone, but must apply means to attain his ends." Read More...

#5 What A Difference A Year Makes (ZeroHedge.com) The last time we were this net long, the S&P 500 dropped over 20% in the next two months... It would appear that any sustained rally from here will need to come from fresh and excited money as opposed to the short-squeeze of last year. Read More...

"It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil."- F.A. Hayek

Facts About Turkey Day

by Jason Riddle

Here's to wishing you and your family well on this Thanksgiving weekend! We all have so much to be thankful for. Please remember to share the message of liberty with family and friends, as the appropriate opportunities arise. Also, if you find this newsletter helpful, please feel free to forward to anyone you think might benefit from this information.

This week I pulled together a few interesting facts about Thanksgiving. Continue...

“A society that puts equality – in the sense of equality of outcome – ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force introduced for no good purpose, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests."

As last Tuesday’s election results rolled in, it was fascinating to witness the social media flurry from all the various perspectives. The folks that continue to perplex me the most are those that express genuine excitement in celebrating Obama’s victory. I have a few serious questions for the fervent Obama supporters. I am genuinely interested: What do you stand for and what exactly has Obama done to win your enthusiastic support?

#2Converting the National Debt into Gold by Craig Eyermann (MyGovCost.org) How much gold would it take to fully pay back the US national debt of $16 trillion? At today's prices, all of the gold that has ever been mined in the history of the world would be enough to pay off just 58 percent of the US debt. Read More...

The History of the Dollar: The history of the US dollar is the subject of the greatest counterfeiting scheme the world has known. (12 mins)

The Gold Standard Explained: Jason discusses the "ins and outs" of the gold standard talks about the prospects for sound money. (25 mins)

Freedom Features

Video of the Week

Dr. Ron Paul's Farwell Speech to Congress. "At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36-year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty." - Dr. Ron Paul, Farewell Speech, 11/14/12 (Click to Watch)

Website of the Week

The Rothbard Circle is discussion group that gives folks interested in the ideas of sound economics and the philosophy of liberty the opportunity to get together monthly to talk about a given topic or topics and consider various positions from a free-market perspective. Start your own local chapter today!

Democracy: The God that Failed Hans-Hermann Hoppe (2001) - A systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from monarchy to democracy. Hoppe deconstructs the classical liberal belief in the possibility of limited government goes on to assess the prospects for achieving a natural order. Hoppe defends the proper role of the production of defense as undertaken on the free market and describes the emergence of private law. (Read More)

Meme of the Week

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